UHS Math Club 2017-2018

Combinatorics Handout 2 Answers and Solutions

Walker Kroubalkian
October 10, 2017

1 Answers
19
1. 27
3
2. 10
6
3. 7
4. 2400
2012
5. 2013
4
6. 5
7. 63
8. 120
1
9. 3
10. 10080
2048
11. 4095
12. 1394
363
13. 20
14. 10800
64
15. 15

2 Solutions

1. If you roll three fair, six-sided dice, what is the probability that the product of the results will
be a multiple of 3?
Solution: In order for the product of the results to be a multiple of 3, at least one of the dice
must roll a 3 or a 6. The probability that any dice will not roll a 3 or a 6 is 46 = 23 . It follows that
the probability that none of the dice will roll a 3 or a 6 is ( 23 )3 = 27
8
. Therefore, the probability
8 19
that at least one of the dice will roll a 3 or a 6 is 1 − = as desired.
27 27
2. Derek has 10 American coins in his pocket, summing to a total of 53 cents. If he randomly
grabs 3 coins from his pocket, what is the probability that theyre all different?
Solution: We can notice that Derek must have either 3 or 8 pennies as all other coins are multiples
of 5, and therefore 53 − p must be a multiple of 5 where p is the number of pennies. Notice that if

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Derek had 8 pennies, he would have to make 45¢ with only 2 coins. This is clearly impossible, so
Derek must have 3 pennies. Now Derek must make 50¢ with 7 coins. Either by guess and check, or
factoring, we can find that Derek must have 4 nickels and 3 dimes. It follows that the probability
3·4·3 3
that Derek grabs 3 different coins from his pocket is   = as desired.
10 10
3
3. 15 people, including Luke and Matt, attend a Berkeley Math meeting. If Luke and Matt sit
next to each other, a fight will break out. If they sit around a circular table, all positions equally
likely, what is the probability that a fight doesnt break out?
Solution: Fix Luke’s position on the table. Matt has 14 positions to sit in relative to Luke, and
2 6
only 2 of these will cause a fight to break out, so our answer is 1 − = as desired.
14 7
4. How many ways can you arrange the letters of the word BERKELEY such that no two Es are
next to each other?
Solution: Notice that any rearrangement of the letters in BERKELEY with this property must
be of the form
-E-E-E-
where the dashes between the E’s must have letters and the dashes on the sides could have letters.
We can fill the dashes with the letters B,R,K,L,Y to get rearrangements of the letters in BERKE-
LEY. By Stars and Bars, The number   of ways to divide 5 letters into four sections such that each
4
section has at least one letter is = 4. The number of ways to divide 5 letters into three sections
3  
4
such that each section has at least one letter is = 6. Finally, the number of ways to divide 5
2  
4
letters into two sections such that each section has at least one letter is = 4. We can separate
1
the letters into three sections in two different ways: one where a section is to the left of the first E
and one where a section is to the right of the third E. Therefore, there are 4 + 2 · 6 + 4 = 20 ways
to divide the letters. However, we must multiply by 5! to rearrange these letters, so our answer is
20 · 120 = 2400 as desired.
5. Tom has 2012 blue cards, 2012 red cards, and 2012 boxes. He distributes the cards in such
a way such that each box has at least 1 card. Sam chooses a box randomly, then chooses a card
randomly. Suppose that Tom arranges the cards such that the probability of Sam choosing a blue
card is maximized. What is this maximum probability?
Solution: Clearly, to maximize the chances of picking a blue card, we want as many boxes with
only blue cards as possible. This can be done by placing 1 blue card in each of 2011 boxes, and
placing the remaining blue card and all of the red cards in the 2012th box. This gives a probability
of picking a blue card of

2011 1 1 20122 2012

+ · = =
2012 2012 2013 2012 · 2013 2013

6. A bag holds 6 coins. Three have tails on both sides, two have heads on both sides, and one has
heads on one side and tails on the other. If you pick a coin at random and notice the only side you
can see is heads, what is the probability that the other side is also a head?

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Solution: If we see a head on one side of a coin, obviously the coin cannot have tails on both sides.
Therefore, the only possible coins are the two coins with heads on both sides and the one normal
coin. The probability of selecting a coin with heads on both sides and seeing a head is 23 · 1 = 23 .
The probability of selecting the normal coin and seeing a head is 13 · 12 = 16 . Therefore our answer is
2
3 4
2 1 =
3 + 6
5

7. How many solutions (x, y) in the positive integers are there to 3x + 7y = 1337?
Solution: Notice that the solution (x, y) with the largest value of y is (7, 188). The only way to
generate other solutions is to decrease the y-value by 3 and increase the x-value by 7. Therefore,
our answer is d 188
3 e = 63 as desired.
8. Brandon is located at (3, 2), and Chuck is located at (6, −5). Brandon can only move unit
distance to the right or down, and Chuck is stationary. In how many different ways can Brandon
move to Chuck?
Solution: Notice that Brandon must move 3 units to the right and 7 units down to get to Chuck. It
follows that we can form a one to one correspondence between paths to Chuck and rearrangements
of the letters RRRDDDDDDD. The number of ways to rearrange these letters is
10!
= 120
3! · 7!

9. Four points A, B, C, and D are randomly chosen on a circle. What is the probability that AB
and CD intersect inside the circle?
Solution: Fix the position of point A on the circle. Notice that if going clockwise from A, B is
encountered after another point not equal to A is encountered, then AB and CD must intersect
1
inside the circle. The probability that B is between points C and D when doing this is as
3
desired.
10. How many ways can you arrange the letters in MATHISHARD such that the permutation
begins with MR?
Solution: Fix the letters MR at the beginning of the permutation. It follows that the rest of the
permutation is a rearrangement of the letters in ATHISHAD. The number of rearrangements of
these letters is
8!
= 10080
2! · 2!
11. There are 12 people labeled 1, 2,· · · 12 working together on 12 missions, with persons 1, 2,· · · i
working on the ith mission. There is exactly one spy among them. If the spy is not working
on a mission, it will be a huge success, but if the spy is working on the mission, it will fail with
probability 21 . Given that the first 11 missions succeed, and the 12th mission fails, what is the
probability that person 12 is the spy?
Solution: Notice that given person i is the spy, the probability that the first 11 missions will
succeed and the 12th mission will fail is ( 21 )13−i . It follows that our probability is
1
2 2048
P12 1 13−x
=
x=1 2 )
( 4095

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12. In prokaryotes, translation of mRNA messages into proteins is most often initiated at start
codons on the mRNA having the sequence AUG. Assume that the mRNA is single-stranded and
consists of a sequence of bases, each described by a single letter, A,C,U, or G. Consider the set of
all pieces of bacterial mRNA six bases in length. How many such mRNA sequences have either no
As or no Us?
Solution: In order for a mRNA sequence to not have any A’s, all of the bases must be C’s, U’s or
G’s. The number of sequences with this property is 36 = 729. Similarly, the number of sequences
with no U’s is 36 = 729. However, simply adding these two would double count the cases where
there are both no A’s and no U’s. The number of sequences with this property is 26 = 64. Therefore
our answer is 2 · 729 − 64 = 1394 as desired.
13. Inside a LilacBall, you can find one of 7 different notes, each equally likely. Delcatty must
collect all 7 notes in order to restore harmony and save Kanto from eternal darkness. What is the
expected number of LilacBalls she must open in order to do so?
Solution: Let En be the expected number of LilacBalls Delcatty must open to collect the 7 notes
given she has already found n notes. E7 = 0 and we wish to find E0 . Notice that we can get the
recurrence En = n7 · En + 7−n 7
7 · En+1 + 1 → En = En+1 + 7−n . Therefore our answer is
6
X 7 363
=
7−n 20
x=0

Note: In the official answer key for this test, an answer of 657
80 was given. The official solution
gives the same expression as the one in the solution above for the answer. A check with Wolfram
Alpha reveals that the answer above is correct.
14. Link starts at the top left corner of an 12 × 12 grid and wants to reach the bottom right corner.
He can only move down or right. A turn is defined a down move immediately followed by a right
move, or a right move immediately followed by a down move. Given that he makes exactly 6 turns,
in how many ways can he reach his destination?
Solution: Clearly Link must do 3 turns which are downs followed by rights and 3 turns which are
rights followed by downs. We can think of turns which are down followed by rights as making a
”special” move downwards, and then immediately afterwards there is either a normal right move
or a ”special” right move which immediately becomes a turn. Therefore, we need 3 ”special” right
moves and 3 ”special” down moves in addition to 8 normal right moves and 8 normal down moves.
There are two possibilities. Either Link’s first turn is a right followed by a down or it is a down
followed by a right. The diagram below shows what the first possibility might look like:

”Special” Move

Start

End

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In the first possibility, Link must divide his 7 remaining right moves among 4 different sections
of his trip after adding a right move to the final turn, and he must divide his 8 remaining down
moves
   among
 3 different sections of his trip. By Stars and Bars, the number of ways to do this is
10 10
· = 5400. By symmetry, there will be the same number of ways in the second possibility
3 2
so our answer is 2 · 5400 = 10800 as desired.
15. Katniss has an n-sided fair die which she rolls. If n > 2, she can either choose to let the value
rolled be her score, or she can choose to roll a n − 1 sided fair die, continuing the process. What is
the expected value of her score assuming Katniss starts with a 6-sided die and plays to maximize
this expected value.
Solution: Let En be the expected value when beginning with a n-sided die. Clearly, E1 = 1,
and E2 = 1+2 3
2 = 2 . Notice that Katniss will not bother rolling an n − 1-sided fair die if she rolls
anything higher than En−1 . It follows that E3 = 13 · E2 + 2+3 13
3 = 6 . Continuing this process, we
64
get E4 = 42 · E3 + 3+4 17 2
4 = 6 , E5 = 5 · E4 +
3+4+5
5
53
= 15 , and finally E6 = 36 · E5 + 4+5+6
6 = as
15
desired.

3 Sources

1. Berkeley Math Tournament Individual Fall 2012 Problem 3

2. Berkeley Math Tournament Individual Fall 2012 Problem 10
3. Berkeley Math Tournament Individual Fall 2012 Problem 13
4. Berkeley Math Tournament Individual Fall 2012 Problem 15
5. Berkeley Math Tournament Individual Fall 2012 Problem 17
6. Berkeley Math Tournament Gambling Fall 2012 Problem 1
7. Berkeley Math Tournament Team Fall 2012 Problem 4
8. Berkeley Math Tournament Countdown Fall 2012 Problem 4
9. Berkeley Math Tournament Countdown Fall 2012 Problem 5
10. Berkeley Math Tournament Countdown Fall 2012 Problem 8
11. Berkeley Math Tournament Team Spring 2012 Problem 4
12. Berkeley Math Tournament Tournament Round 1 Spring 2012 Problem 3
13. Berkeley Math Tournament Tournament Round 2 Spring 2012 Problem 6
14. Berkeley Math Tournament Tournament Round 4 Spring 2012 Problem 6
15. Berkeley Math Tournament Championship Round Spring 2012 Problem 2